


Good Bones

by Carressa



Series: Home [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Arguing, Body Horror, Established Relationship, Gabriel is allergic to communication, Gabriel spends most of the fic impersonating oobleck, Jack doesn't know what boundaries are, M/M, Married Couple, SEP's done something funky to their emotions, So there both children when it comes to talking about feelings, Stand Alone Sequel, but they work it out, long-haired Gabriel, toxic relationship dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:20:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26325535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carressa/pseuds/Carressa
Summary: Gabriel keeps turning into goo and won't tell Jack why. It's putting a damper on their retirement plans.
Relationships: Reaper | Gabriel Reyes/Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison
Series: Home [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1912927
Comments: 2
Kudos: 45





	Good Bones

“Are we going to talk about this?" Jack's patience is about to run out. He'd let Gabriel sort himself out on his own for ten minutes without saying anything. The throw rug in the center of the living room was going to be ruined beyond repair if he didn't step in now.

They'd returned to Jack's family farm to officially retire. Years of promises Jack made to Gabriel finally being fulfilled. Renovate the old farmhouse, move in, settle down. Gabriel was comfortable on the living room couch triple-checking their renovation budget one second, the next he was black sludge getting stuck between the couch cushions. Jack hadn't even seen him melt. He'd never seen Gabriel turn into goo before. He'd only known Gabriel to be solid or mist not. . .

"We are not talking about it," Gabriel says. He drizzles into the cracks of the ancient hardwood floors and saturates the edges of the throw rug turning it sticky-black. Jack can't place where Gabriel's voice comes from, but the anger and exasperation in his words are enough to convince Jack not to ask questions. Instead, Jack retrieves an empty paint bucket from where he has them stacked in the kitchen and puts it under the couch so Gabriel can at least stop spreading across the floor.

"Is this normal for you?" Jack asks.

" _Yes,_ " Gabe growls.

Jack snorts. He sits on the ground next to the lake of ooze.

"Is there something I can do to help?"Jack asks.

"No."

They sit in silence punctuated by the _thuwap-drip-thuwap_ of Gabriel dripping into the bucket.

" _Gabriel._ "

"What."

"Are you in pain?"

"I'm always in pain."

Jack glares at the puddle in the bucket. "I'm. Trying. To talk to you."

Gabriel sighs. A few air bubbles burble up from the goop. "This is embarrassing."

"How long does it last?"

"Depends."

"Are you actually in pain?"

"No."

"Why didn't you tell me you turn to sludge?"

"You're not my keeper." A pair of red eyes open in the depths of the ooze.

Jack walks back to the pile of old baseboards he'd been pulling out. He doesn't want Gabriel's eyes looking at him. "This proves retirement is the right choice."

"This doesn't prove _shit._ "

"We're not returning to Overwatch when you spontaneously turn into liquid."

"You don't get to single-handedly decide what we do."

Jack rests his head against the wall and closes his eyes against the headache forming at his temples. Gabriel has health problems again. . .The idea coils and constricts around Jack's brain.

"Gabe, don't fight me on this."

Gabriel laughs. It's a gurgling, liquid swishing sound. Then the tiny rumble of heavy booted footsteps. Jack feels Gabriel's stubble tickle the back of his neck, the soft press of lips on the side of his jaw. "I'll fight you over whatever I want."

Jack swats Gabriel away like a fly and focuses on breathing and removing the baseboards. Gabriel sits next to him and watches as he pulls the rotten wood from the bottom of the wall.

"What did you order to replace those?" Gabriel asks.

"New ones are in the kitchen. Chose something simple. You'll like them."

"Do you want help?"

"Do you want to talk about what just happened?"

Jack was met with silence. Gabriel was such a stubborn asshole.

"You could help by ordering a pizza," Jack says.

"What else?"

"Don't eat the pizza man when he gets here."

"I wasn't thinking of it. But now I want too."

Dust, mold spores, and wood bits burst into the air as Jack puts the hammer down and resorts to pulling the old wood out with his hands.

"I thought you said this is our house now, Jackie," Gabriel says.

"It is our house."

"Then let me help renovate it."

"You've helped."

"Going over the budget isn't helping. Letting me repaint the bedroom is helping."

"You're helping us stay on track."

"If you don't want me here you could just say so."

"I want you here."

"You're not acting like it."

Jack wipes his dust-covered hands on his pants. He doesn't know how Gabriel comes to these wild conclusions. "I want you here."

Gabriel doesn't say anything, and he doesn't have too. Jack can feel resentment pouring off him in waves. Everything's always a fight with Gabriel. "You could use some rest. Is all."

"I've rested enough."

"You were goop five seconds ago."

"I'm fine."

"You seem stressed."

"You want me to _retire._ "

"Is that all that's bothering you?"

"I'm telling you what's bothering me. You're being an asshole."

"If you want to help so badly you can take out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. I hate it."

"Gladly."

"And order the pizza. I'm still hungry."

* * *

Gabriel attacks the wall with gusto. Jack would have never known Gabriel was porridge dripping across the floor just a few hours ago if he hadn't seen it himself. The bastard was taking the wall apart with his bare hands, shirt off, flexing, putting on a show. Jack appreciates it to the point of becoming useless. He gives up on replacing the baseboards to openly ogle the way the muscles on Gabriel's back flex.

"Are you gonna look at me like that all day?" Gabriel asks.

Jack hums. "I think we need to take out more walls. Between the living room and the den maybe."

"Open concept?"

"Yeah, it's too dark in here. Gabriel. . ."

Gabriel stays pointedly silent. Jack takes it as an invitation to keep talking.

"How long did you think you could hide that from me? What happens if you melt in the shower and get washed down the drain?"

Gabriel laughs. One hand stuck through the wall, the other covering his face. He's getting drywall dust all over himself but doesn't seem to care. "Really? Is that your number one fear?"

"Or you could die in battle if someone steps on you. Or get captured."

"I thought we weren't going back to Overwatch. We don't have to worry about kidnappings or someone stomping me to death if we're living the farm life, do we?"

"You're being an asshole."

"Am I? I'd love to see Talon try and scoop me off the floor with a bucket. I'd pay for it."

"You're not taking me seriously."

"You're not listening to me. There's nothing to worry about."

"I always listen," Jack says.

"Do you?"

"I _always_ listen. You never speak to me."

"I've been telling you this is a mistake all month. One night on the couch watching the news and you'll be miserable. You'll mope around for days, won't talk about what's wrong until your up at night sobbing that you need to be back out there. I know you're not ready for this."

Jack tenses like he's getting ready to punch Gabriel through what's left of the wall. "Any other low blows you want to take while you're at it?" Jack asks.

"I'm sorry." Gabriel didn't look sorry. Jack knew when Gabriel looked sorry. There was nothing sorry about the blank expression on Gabriel's face. 

"Take your apology and shove it up your ass, Reyes." Jack left the room before things could get worse. He couldn't stand to see Gabriel's stupid face for another moment.

* * *

The day passed quickly and Jack didn't have the patience to lay down next to Gabriel to sleep. Instead, he banishes himself to the couch. The frame is splintered. Jagged wooden edges poke through the flimsy cushions and keep finding ways to stab at Jack's sides. He can't remember how the couch got to be in such a state but he's positive it was his fault somehow. This close to the cushions all he can smell is mold caked onto the fabric. He makes a mental note to throw the couch away in the morning.

There's something about Gabriel that sends Jack from zero to a thousand in a millisecond. It wasn't like that before SEP. Gabriel would annoy him, but the annoyance wouldn't become an unbearable irritation that made it impossible to look Gabriel in the eye. Jack knew his reaction was more than the situation called for but he didn't know how else to handle the swell of emotion inside him besides sleeping on the couch and waiting for it to end.

Gabriel knows Jack's sensitive. People hurting _gets_ to him. Having his sensitivity thrown back in his face by his own husband? It sends his blood boiling.

Would he have the patience to talk things out if they were normal humans? Jack puts the thought away. It's not worth thinking about. It's not his reality.

Floorboards creak upstairs. Jack follows the sound as it moves down the staircase. Gabriel steps into the living room and Jack meets his eyes through the darkness.

"Stop being an idiot and come to bed," Gabriel says.

"I'm not the one who's being an idiot."

Gabriel stands still, doesn't breathe, stares down Jack with his blood-red eyes.

"I'm not moving," Jack says.

"I'm sorry."

"I don't care."

"At least talk about it with me."

"No."

"You're throwing a tantrum."

"I don't throw tantrums."

Gabriel snorts. "Could've fooled me." Gabriel moves into the kitchen. Jack hears him pour a glass of water, drink it, and then the soft clink of the glass being put in the sink.

"I'll be waiting for you." Gabriel meets Jack's eyes again on his way back upstairs. His gaze says everything Jack doesn't want to hear. That he's being stupid. That this argument is stupid. That them not enjoying their time together is stupid.

"I can't help it," Jack says to Gabriel's retreating back.

"I know."

"If you know you could fight nicer."

That stops Gabriel. He stands still clenching and un-clenching his fists. "Come to bed, please."

It's the 'please' that does it. The anger is punched out of Jack almost immediately. He follows Gabriel to bed.

* * *

Jack wakes up feeling like crap and goes straight for the coffee machine. Gabriel follows him into the kitchen, stretching and yawning and looking more handsome they anyone has the right to getting out of bed.

"I wanna paint the kitchen blue," Gabriel says.

"Blue like my eyes?"

Gabriel slithers around Jack, throws his arms over his shoulders, everything below his torso becoming silk-soft black tendrils that snake around Jack's legs."Ever the narcissist. Yes, Jackie. Blue like your eyes."

Jack wonders when Gabriel will stop having the power to send his heart into a frenzy. Even now, old as they were, Jack knew he was blushing from Gabriel's admission.

"Stop with the sappy shit. Wouldn't want anyone to know you have a heart."

Gabriel chuckles."We wouldn't want that, would we?" He unwinds himself from Jack, reaches over his shoulder to fiddle with the coffee machine. "You put too much water in the machine, didn't you?"

"I put the right amount of water."

"You put too much water."

"I put the right amount."

"Put bread in the toaster while I make us coffee."

Jack follows Gabriel's directions willingly. Yesterday's argument a distant memory.

* * *

"Gabriel!"

There's black goo dripping off the roof. It's caked between roof shingles and caught in the gutter. The sludge glistens in the afternoon sun.

"What happened?" Jack asks.

"I'm stuck in the gutter. Get the hose."

If Jack wasn't so worried he'd be laughing. "You want me to. . .?"

"Rinse. Me. Off. The. Roof."

Jack swallows his questions and fetches the garden hose. He props a ladder against the side of the house while he hoses Gabriel down the gutter. Gabriel collects in the storm drain in a soupy mix of viscera and water. Jack climbs down the ladder to sit by the storm drain. His clothes instantly caking in mud. "Gabe."

"What."

Jack sighs. He looks up at the roof still dripping with water and waits for Gabriel to explain himself.

"This isn't a big deal," Gabriel says.

Jack stays quiet. He looks down at Gabriel moving through the water like a disincorporated jellyfish.

"I'm sorry you had to wash me off the roof."

"Do you know what's causing this?" Jack asks.

"Yes."

"Are you going to tell me?"

"No."

Jack kicked dirt into the storm drain.

"Jackie!"

"Stop being stubborn."

Goop rose out from between the bars of the storm drain and collected itself into a puddle on a dry-ish patch of dirt. Gabriel reformed. It was like watching chopped meat be glued in the shape of a human.

"Pot calling kettle," Gabriel says. He lays on the ground, visibly exhausted.

"What the hell were you doing up there?" Jack asks.

"The roof leaks. I was fixing it."

Jack snorts. "What does a city boy like you know about fixing roofs?"

"We have roofs in LA, Morrison."

Jack continues snorting to himself.

"I'm glad you think you're funny." Gabriel was smiling, looking content and solid, and definitely not human-goop.

"I need you to talk to me. I'm worried about you. " Jack says.

"I need. . .time."

"I can do that. But I need you to talk to me." Jack helps Gabriel to his feet.

"I will. Help me with the roof, I was almost finished."

* * *

Three calm summer days rolled by like nothing and Jack was on edge waiting to find Gabriel indisposed and floating in the toilet or some other inconvenient place that would require Jack to help and ask no questions. When he found him splattered out in the cornfields he wasn't surprised, merely disappointed.

Fifteen minutes waiting for Gabriel to come inside for dinner only to find he was caked into the dirt between corn stalks. It was a miracle Jack had been able to find him at all.

"What were you even doing out here?" Jack asks.

"Was on a walk."

"In the cornfield?"

An echoing sigh followed by the ooze collecting itself back into Gabriel. "I just needed some space."

"Wash up. I've been waiting on you for dinner." Jack didn't wait for Gabriel to follow him back to the house. If Gabriel wanted to be stubborn that was fine. But Jack wasn't going to wait around on Gabriel's timeline to find out what was wrong. He could find out himself.

* * *

"And you think _I'd_ know?" McCree asks.

Jack was on the phone. He sat hunched over in the den. Gabriel was nowhere to be found. Said he was going outside to fix the shed and hadn't come back for hours. Melted into human gunk and gumming up the bottom of the lawnmower, probably.

"You're closest to him. Besides Olivia. I've checked his medical records and what I could of Talon's archives and found nothing. I'm out of options."

"Does Gabriel know you've been snooping?"

"That's not important."

McCree sighs. "I'm sorry, I don't got much of a clue. Have you asked Angela to check on him?"

"He says he knows what's wrong. He doesn't seem worried. He just won't tell me."

"You know how he is. Wouldn't tell anyone he's bleeding out even if he were on death's door. And he's not much going to appreciate you going behind his back to ask me if I know anything."

Jack grunts. "Thanks anyway."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

Jack hangs up. He debates calling Olivia. Pulls himself apart weighing the pros and cons, types her number into his phone—

He puts his phone down and tries to breathe through his worry. McCree was right. He shouldn't go behind Gabriel's back. He could wait for Gabriel to be ready. He had patience.

* * *

"I swear to God, Gabriel."

"I need a minute," Gabriel says. He'd splattered along the kitchen sink, countertops, and floor. They were making dinner— _Jack_ was making dinner, Gabriel was relegated to peeling the potatoes—when Gabriel turned to goo with an audible squishing splat sound that made Jack's appetite a distant memory.

"Just tell me if your dying."

"I'm not. _Jesus_ , Jackie."

"Don't 'Jesus, Jackie' me. It took you months to tell me you were dying the first time around."

"You had a panic attack that sent you to the hospital after I told you. You had to be sedated and put on bed rest. Don't act like I kept the truth from you for fun." Gabriel reformed. He looked exhausted.

"I'm not young and naive enough to believe either of us will live forever anymore," Jack says.

"I'm not going to chance sending you into an episode when the closest hospital is four hours away."

"An **episode**? Are you serious?"

"I don't want to fight with you."

"Then tell me what's wrong so we can be done with it already!"

Gabriel stalks out of the kitchen. He grumbles in a litany of spanish Jack has heard a million times before. Asking God to give him patience because he was going to strangle Jack, other standard frustration-fueled phrases Gabriel probably didn't even realize he was saying.

Jack follows him. "Just tell me what's wrong!"

"I _have._ But you snoop through my medical records, tell Jesse my business, act as if you've lost you're mind—"

"I'm _worried_ about you—"

"—and I'm just supposed to roll over and tell you exactly what you want to hear whenever you want to hear it. When I talk you don't listen."

"You're melting all over the house. Maybe if you talked to me about it I wouldn't have to go looking for the truth."

"Typical, Jackie. _Everything_ always has to be on your time. Fuck me, right? Fuck how I feel. Your feelings are always more important—" Gabriel broke apart and splattered onto the floor. It was like watching a bucket's worth of pudding being unleashed on the hardwood. Jack glared down at the mess and it all clicked into place. He was such a fucking idiot. They were both absolute idiots with emotions too intense for either of them to handle on their own.

"Its stress isn't it," Jack says. He receives silence in return. His suspicion confirmed.

" _Gabriel_." Jack bends down over the gooey remains of his husband. "Why didn't you tell me I was stressing you out?"

Bubbles rose out of the black viscera. Jack took it as a valid response. He slumps down and sits next to where the majority of the goo is collected. "I've been an ass."

Jack lays on the floor. A few seconds later Gabriel lays next to him, fully formed and human.

"Why are you stressed? In clear terms." Jack asks.

"I don't want to retire. And you fuss over me."

"I worry about you."

"I know. I wish you wouldn't."

"Then you're going to have to use your words, Reyes. Because I can't read your mind."

Gabriel sighs a long, drawn-out sigh. "Okay. I need to use my words. But retirement?"

"I promised it to you."

"You did. When we were kids."

Gabriel rests his head on Jack's chest. His long dark hair fanning across Jack's torso.

"You always wanted to retire, have kids and a dog and a white picket fence. I can't give you any of it anymore. I missed my chance. But I can give you this. I've let you down enough." Jack says.

"You're letting me down now. If I wanted to retire don't you think I would say it?"

Jack ran his hands through Gabriel's hair. "I want to spend time with you."

"Then spend time with me. But I want to do good. Talon can't be the last thing I do before I retire. I can't work in the field like I used to anymore, anyway. It won't be like it was."

"You want to be on desk duty?"

"I want to help. I know you do too."

Jack inhales and can only smell Gabriel. "I care more about you than I do about helping these days."

Gabriel smiles into Jack's sternum. "Oh, how the tables have turned."

"Shut up, Reyes."

"We can finish the house first. Have something to come back to when we're ready."

"Okay," Jack says.

"That easy?"

"Yes. I'm sorry. For everything. You're right, I don't listen."

"Morrison apologizing? Never thought I'd see the day."

"Shut it."

"I'm sorry too."

"Apology accepted."

"Such a boy scout."

Gabriel looks at Jack with a wide, full smile. To Jack, it feels like a sunrise. He couldn't love Gabriel more. Flaws and all, his husband was perfection.


End file.
